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Michael Roberts (1945- ) Born in 1945, Michael Roberts studied medicine at Sheffield University Medical School where he became interested in British spiders. Prompted by the lack of well-illustrated guide books to the British Spiders, Roberts set himself the challenge of producing his own set of detailed drawings. Since the 1960s, Roberts has drawn many of the 650 species of spiders that are found in the British Isles. He has also published two important books on British spiders, which are illustrated with his own detailed drawings. Today, he continues to practice medicine but is also recognised as an internationally acclaimed arachnologist (spider expert).
This drawing is typical of Roberts' work and was used in his major book, The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland (1985). The drawing depicts one of the most common British spiders, the Garden spider (Araneus diadematus). This spider is also known as the Cross spider because of the cross of white spots which usually occurs on the front of the abdomen. The spider in this drawing has been greatly enlarged in order to show all of the fine detail necessary for a naturalist to correctly identify it.
The Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) is commonly
found in gardens throughout Great Britain and is widely distributed
in Europe. To catch its prey, the spider constructs an orb-web,
an amazing feat of natural engineering. The web is constructed
of fine silk thread beaded with drops of gluey silk so when
an insect flies into the web, it becomes stuck. The spider
then bites it, wraps it in silk and then sucks the juices
from its prey.
The Michael Roberts Drawing Collection The Natural History Museum was very keen to acquire this excellent example of contemporary scientific artwork and the collection was purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund. The Museum's spider expert Paul Hillyard states: 'Roberts is a brilliant spider artist and his illustrations are unsurpassed in terms of quality and accuracy.' The collection consists of 268 coloured ink drawings of the spiders used to illustrate the two books by Michael Roberts. His first major work was the three volume book, The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1985. This was followed with Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe, in 1995. Both of these well-illustrated books have encouraged many naturalists to take a serious interest in the spiders to be found in the British countryside. Such identification books not only help to stimulate interest in particular organisms, but they also encourage naturalists to carry out field surveys and observations. These activities in turn contribute to increasing our knowledge about the distribution and biology of animals and plants.
Exhibition and publication details This drawing appears as plate 137 in: Roberts, M. (1985) The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols. Harley Books, Colchester. Roberts, M. (1995) Collins Field Guide to the Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe. Harper Collins: London. 383pp.
References and further reading Hillyard, P. D. (1994) The book of the spider: from arachnophobia to the love of spiders. Hutchinson: London. 196pp. Sterry, P. (1996) Spiders: a portrait of the animal world.
Todtri: New York. 72pp.
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